In the dusty little French Pyrenees town of Prades (pop. 4,397), the atmosphere was as vibrant as a violin string. Musicians and music-loving tourists from all over Western Europe and the U.S. had clustered there for the most notable of the summer's festivals in honor of Johann Sebastian Bach, who died 200 years ago next month. Prades' festival was centered in one of Bach's most renowned interpreters, 73-year-old Cellist Pablo Casals, who had come out of self-imposed retirement there (TIME, Jan. 30) for the occasion.
A month ago, when some of the world's top...
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